For anyone who received a weird invite from me called "Christmas Test", or something like that, please ignore it. I was trying to set up a live hangout for my family for Christmas and an invite went out to all of my circles. Sorry for the confusion. ﻿

MY SD CARD LIVES! I just got the lollipop update on my GPE and the first thing I wanted to try was copying a file to my SD card using ES File Explorer. It initially wanted me to give it some sort of app permission, but as soon as I gave it it worked. My Z Ultra is finally fully functional. ﻿

Well, it's official, the Nexus 9 is too expensive for what I'd be getting. My wife wanted to get a tablet for the kids to do schoolwork on and she said get whatever you want (she knows I'm the tech expert in the house). My knee-jerk reaction was to place an order for a new Nexus 9. However, when I considered that I'd be wanting to get the 32gb version and how much more that would cost, and when I looked around at what was available in that price range, it just didn't make sense.

So I ended up getting a used Nexus 10 off swappa for about $200. The pixel density and screen quality is just as good as it is on a N9, it has front facing speakers, and it cost me a ton less. On top of that it was ready to download the Lollipop update the moment I fired it up. So now I've got a like-new Lollipop tablet for what seems like peanuts.

I'm sure there are N9 owners out there that love it, but coming from someone who was given a full budget to buy whatever I wanted, I just couldn't pull the trigger considering the cost.

Disclaimer: This is my opinion about what was the best solution for ME. Other opinions may vary.﻿

I'm watching through the entire series with my kids right now and just started Season 9 this past week. And I was NOT ready for the change in voice actors. I'm 3/4 of the way through S9 and I still can't stand Ash's voice, but I don't really care because I don't watch the show for him. But I was devastated initially at James and Brock's voices. James is my favorite character and Brock is so iconic.

Luckily the voice actors seem to have improved as the season progressed and I can't really tell much difference anymore between old and new James. Brock still seems off from time to time though.

Is there any official word as to if/when the LG G Pad 8.3 (original, NOT GPE) will get Lollipop? Finding a GPE for sale is getting more and more difficult and I was wondering if buying a standard G Pad 8.3 would leave me in permanently in KitKat land.﻿

I'm mostly saving this for later reference, but for anyone that follows me, I personally am both proud to be a part of an all-volunteer force, and also increasingly aware of the distance it has put between the military and the civilian public. Below are some key quotes from the article that stood out to me.

"How can it be that the U.S. military is at war, but the nation is not?"

"For the generations of Americans who have come of age in the all-volunteer era, war has become an abstraction, something best left to the professionals."

"Somehow," Eikenberry says, "we have to find ways to reconnect the American people and their armed forces, so that there is a more direct and visceral understanding of the political, social, and economic costs of war."﻿

The latest version of the Chromecast app allows me to cast my whole screen even though the Z Ultra isn't officially supported yet.

I tested it out and my Z Ultra GPE with Lollipop was able to cast without any issues. It ran just as well as it does on my officially supported Nexus 4, 7, and 10.

To test its efficiency I opened the Netflix app and played a video to see how well the audio and video synced up. The audio was off by less than half a second. I actually spent most of the time just looking at mouths to see if the audio was off, because it was that close.

Overall I'm thrilled that I can now screen cast without having to root. So far my endeavor to own a Nexus/GPE device and do everything I want without having to root is paying off. ﻿

I haven't had good Tibetan food in forever and this place completely satisfied. The menu is very diverse and I had a hard time choosing. I had the lamb curry and my wife had the mushroom fried rice. Both were amazing.
The decor is very nice and sets a nice atmosphere. I will definitely be coming back.

Not a bad hotel, just a bit overpriced. I stayed at the Omni in Fort Worth, TX, and that was a easily a top-tier experience. Overall the decor, atmosphere, and overall experience of the Omni La Mansion del Rio just didn't seem up to par with my past experiences. I'll still stay at Omni hotels elsewhere, but if I'm heading back to the Riverwalk, I'll probably find some place less expensive.

Even if the food were priced more in line with Red Lobster, which it's not, it's much more expensive, the food is very subpar and uninspired. Everything tastes very bland. To make matters worse, most dinner plates are $18 or above, with most being in the $20 range. I guess they feel like they can get away with it because the town is so small, but as long as there's a Red Lobster nearby, there is no reason to waste your money here.
I would rather eat fast food than spend my money there.
Wait times were also very long. Almost 40 minutes to get our food, and we were the only ones in the restaurant because we ate early that day.
However, the decor was nice and the wait stuff was very friendly.

• • •

Even if the food were priced more in line with Red Lobster, which it's not, it's much more expensive, the food is very subpar and uninspired. Everything tastes very bland. To make matters worse, most dinner plates are $18 or above, with most being in the $20 range. I guess they feel like they can get away with it because the town is so small, but as long as there's a Red Lobster nearby, there is no reason to waste your money here.
I would rather eat fast food than spend my money there.
Wait times were also very long. Almost 40 minutes to get our food, and we were the only ones in the restaurant because we ate early that day.
However, the decor was nice and the wait stuff was very friendly.